Part 3

Of the minor notes Andrew Allison (1907) says: "I know of no other warbler except the Chat that can produce so great a variety of sounds; and since nearly all of the notes resemble those of other warblers, this is a most confusing bird to deal with during the busy season of 'waves'."

The call note often has a buzzing quality, and often runs into a long chatter (also characteristic of the young bird), but it may be given so sharply enunciated that it suggests the _chip_ of the black-poll. Allen (MS.) writes it _chi_, "like pebbles struck together," and Cordelia J. Stanwood (1910) renders it _sptz_, saying "the sound resembled the noise made by a drop of syrup sputtering on a hot stove."

_Field marks._--The black-poll, in its spring plumage, and the black-and-white warbler resemble each other in coloration, but the latter bird may be readily distinguished by its white stripe down the center of the crown and the white line over the eye. The contrast in the behavior of the two birds separates them at a glance.

_Enemies._--Like other birds which build on the ground, the black-and-white is subject, during the nesting season, to attacks by snakes and predatory mammals. A. D. DuBois (MS.) cites a case in which maggots destroyed a nestful of young birds.

Harold S. Peters (1936) reports that a fly, _Ornithoica confluens_ Say, and a louse, _Myrsidea incerta_ (Kellogg), have been found in the plumage of the black-and-white warbler.

Herbert Friedmann (1929) says: "This aberrant warbler is a rather uncommon victim of the Cowbird, only a couple dozen definite instances having come to my notice. * * * The largest number of Cowbirds' eggs found in a single nest of this Warbler is five, together with three eggs of the owner." George W. Byers (1950) reports a nest of this warbler, in Michigan, that held two eggs of the warbler and eight of the cowbird, on which the warbler was incubating. His photograph of the eggs suggests that they were probably laid by four different cowbirds.

_Fall._--Several of the warblers show a tendency to stray from their breeding grounds soon after their young are able to care for themselves, perhaps even before the postnuptial molt is completed and long before the birds gather into the mixed autumn flocks. Among these early wandering birds the black-and-white warbler is a very conspicuous species, perhaps because it is one of our commoner birds or, more probably, because of its habit of feeding in plain sight on the trunks and low branches of dead or dying trees and shrubs instead of hiding, like other warblers, high up in the foliage. It may be that the warblers we see at some distance from their breeding grounds thus early in the season have already begun their migration toward the south: they often appear to be migrating.

Behind the house in Lexington, Mass., where I lived for years, there was a little hill, sparsely covered with locust trees, to the southward from my dooryard. This hill was a favorite resort for warblers in late summer. No warbler bred within a mile of the spot, except the summer yellowbird, to use the old name, yet soon after the first of July the black-and-white warblers began to assemble there. Not infrequently I have seen a single bird come to the hill, flying in from the north across Lexington Common, and join others there. The small company might remain for an hour or more, frequently singing (evidently adult males) as the birds fed in the locust trees.

Later in the season, as August advances, migration appears more evident. The birds now gather in larger numbers, sometimes as many as eight or ten; they pause in the locust trees for a shorter time before flying off; they are no longer in song; and the majority of the birds have white cheeks, most of them presumably young birds. Although they are almost silent as they climb about feeding, if you stand quietly in the midst of a company of four or five, now and then you may hear a faint note, and at once the note comes from all sides, each bird apparently reporting its whereabouts--a sound which calls to mind the south-bound migrants as they roam through the quiet autumn woods. Other warblers, unquestionably migrants, visit this hillside in August, notably the Tennessee, an early arrival who has already traveled a long way.

The fall migration of the black-and-white is long-drawn-out. The bird does not depend, like many of the warblers, on finding food among the foliage, so it may linger long after the trees are bare of leaves, sometimes, here in New England, well into October. I saw a bird in eastern Massachusetts on October 23, 1940, a very late date.

_Winter._--Dr. Alexander F. Skutch (MS.) sent to A. C. Bent the following comprehensive account of the bird on its winter quarters: "None of our warblers is more catholic in its choice of a winter home than the black-and-white. Upon its departure from its nesting range, it spreads over a vast area from the Gulf States south to Ecuador and Venezuela, from the Pacific coast of Mexico and Central America eastward through the Antilles. And in the mountainous regions of its winter range it does not, like so many members of the family, restrict itself to a particular altitudinal zone, but on the contrary scatters from sea level high up into the mountains. As a result of this wide dispersion, latitudinal and altitudinal, it appears to be nowhere abundant in Central America during the winter months, yet it has been recorded from more widely scattered localities than most other winter visitants. On the southern coast of Jamaica, in December 1930, I found a greater concentration of individuals than I have ever seen in Central America during midwinter.

"Wintering throughout the length of Central America, from near sea level up to 9,000 feet and rarely higher, the black-and-white warbler is somewhat more abundant in that portion of its altitudinal range comprised between 2,000 or 3,000 and 7,000 or 8,000 feet above sea level. It is found in the heavy forest, in the more open types of woodland, among the shade trees of the coffee plantations, and even amid low second-growth with scattered trees. It creeps along the branches in exactly the same fashion in its winter as in its summer home. Solitary in its disposition, two of the kind are almost never seen together. The only time I have heard this warbler sing in Central America was also one of the very few occasions when I found two together. Early on the bright morning of September 1, 1933, when the warblers were arriving from the north, I heard the black-and-white's weak little song repeated several times among the trees at the edge of an oak wood, at an altitude of 8,500 feet in the Guatemalan highlands. Looking into the tree tops, I saw two of these birds together. Apparently they were singing in rivalry, as red-faced warblers, Kaup's redstarts, yellow warblers, and other members of the family solitary during the winter months will sing in the face of another of their kind, at seasons when they are usually silent. Often such songs lead to a pursuit or even a fight; but I have never seen black-and-white warblers actually engaged in a conflict in their winter home.

"Although intolerant of their own kind, the black-and-white warblers are not entirely hermits; for often a single one will attach itself to a mixed flock of small birds. In the Guatemalan highlands, during the winter months, such flocks are composed chiefly of Townsend's warblers; and each flock, in addition to numbers of the truly gregarious birds, will contain single representatives of various species of more solitary disposition, among them often a lone black-and-white, so different in appearance and habits from any of its associates.

"This warbler arrives and departs early. It has been recorded during the first week of August in Guatemala, and by the latter part of the month in Costa Rica and Panamá. In Costa Rica, it appears not to linger beyond the middle or more rarely the end of March; while for northern Central America my latest date is April 22.

"Early dates of fall arrival in Central America are: Guatemala--passim (Griscom), August 3; Sierra de Tecpán, August 23, 1933; Santa María de Jesús, August 6, 1934; Huehuetenango, August 14, 1934. Honduras--Tela, August 19, 1930. Costa Rica--San José (Cherrie), August 20; Carrillo (Carriker), September 1; San Isidro de Coronado, September 8, 1935; Basin of El General, September 19, 1936; Vara Blanca, September 5, 1937; Murcia, September 11, 1941. Panamá--Canal Zone (Arbib and Loetscher), August 24, 1933, and August 29, 1934. Ecuador--Pastaza Valley, below Baños, October 17, 1939.

"Late dates of spring departure from Central America are: Costa Rica--Basin of El General, February 23, 1936, March 10, 1939, March 26, 1940, March 3, 1942, March 18, 1943; Vara Blanca, March 13, 1938; Guayabo (Carriker), March 30; Juan Viñas (Carriker), March 21. Honduras--Tela, April 22, 1930. Guatemala--Motagua Valley, near Los Amates, April 17, 1932; Sierra de Tecpán, February 20, 1933."

The bird has a wide winter range, as shown above. Dr. Thomas Barbour (1943) speaks of it thus in Cuba: "Common in woods and thickets. A few arrive in August, and by September they are very abundant, especially in the overgrown jungles about the Ciénaga."

Edward S. Dingle (MS.) has sent to A. C. Bent a remarkable winter record of a black-and-white warbler seen on Middleburg plantation, Huger, S. C., on January 13, 1944.

DISTRIBUTION

_Range._--Canada to northern South America.

_Breeding range._--The black-and-white warbler breeds =north= to southwestern Mackenzie, rarely (Simpson and Providence; has been collected at Norman); northern Alberta (Chipewyan and McMurray); central Saskatchewan (Flotten Lake, probably Grand Rapids, and Cumberland House); southern Manitoba (Duck Mountain, Lake St. Martin, Winnipeg, and Indian Bay); central Ontario (Kenora, Pagwachuan River mouth, and Lake Abitibi; has occurred at Piscapecassy Creek on James Bay, and at Moose Factory); southern Quebec (Lake Tamiskaming, Blue Sea Lake, Quebec, Mingan, and Mascanin; has occurred at Sandwich Bay, Labrador); and central Newfoundland (Deer Lake, Nicholsville, Lewisport, and Fogo Island). =East= to Newfoundland (Fogo Island and White Bear River); Nova Scotia (Halifax and Yarmouth); the Atlantic coast to northern New Jersey (Elizabeth and Morristown); eastern Pennsylvania (Berwyn); Maryland (Baltimore and Cambridge); eastern Virginia (Ashland and Lawrenceville); North Carolina (Raleigh and Charlotte); South Carolina (Columbia and Aiken); and central Georgia (Augusta and Milledgeville). =South= to central Georgia (Milledgeville); south central Alabama (Autaugaville); north-central Mississippi (Starkville and Legion Lake); northern Louisiana (Monroe; rarely to southern Louisiana, Bayou Sora); and northeastern and south-central Texas (Marshall, Dallas, Classen, Kerrville, and Junction). =West= to central Texas (Junction and Palo Dura Canyon); central Kansas (Clearwater); central-northern Nebraska (Valentine); possibly eastern Montana (Glasgow); central Alberta (Camrose, Glenevis, and Lesser Slave Lake); to southwestern Mackenzie (Simpson). There is a single record of its occurrence in June at Gautay, Baja California, 25 miles south of the international border.

_Winter range._--In winter the black-and-white warbler is found =north= to southern Texas (Cameron County, occasionally Cove, and Texarkana); central Mississippi, occasionally (Clinton); accidental in winter at Nashville, Tenn.; southern Alabama (Fairfield); southern Georgia (Lumber City, occasionally Milledgeville, and Athens); and rarely to central-eastern South Carolina (Edisto Island and Charleston). =East= to the coast of South Carolina, occasionally (Charleston); Georgia (Blackbeard Island); Florida (St. Augustine, New Smyrna, and Miami); the Bahamas (Abaco, Watling, and Great Abaco Islands); Dominican Republic (Samaná); Puerto Rico; Virgin Islands and the Lesser Antilles to Dominica; and eastern Venezuela (Paria Peninsula). =South= to northern Venezuela (Paria Peninsula, Rancho Grande, and Mérida); west-central Colombia (Bogotá); and central Ecuador (Pastazo Valley). =West= to central and western Ecuador (Pastazo Valley and Quito); western Colombia (Pueblo Rico); western Panamá (Dvala); El Salvador (Mount Cacaguatique); western Guatemala (Mazatenango); Guerrero (Acapulco and Coyuca); Colima (Manzanillo); northwestern Pueblo (Metlatayuca); western Nuevo León (Monterey); and southern Texas (Cameron County). It also occurs casually in the Cape region of Baja California and in southern California (Dehesa and Carpenteria). There are also several records in migration from California and from western Sinaloa.

_Migration._--Late dates of spring departure from the winter home are: Venezuela--Yacua, Paria Peninsula, March 20. Colombia--Santa Marta region, March 12. Panamá--Gatún, March 26. Costa Rica--El General, April 9. Honduras--Tola, April 22. Guatemala--Quiriguá, April 17. Veracruz--El Conejo, May 15. Puerto Rico--Algonobo, April 27. Haiti--Île à Vache, May 6. Cuba--Habana, May 25. Bahamas--Abaco, May 6. Florida--Orlando, May 21. Georgia--Cumberland, May 26. Louisiana--Avery Island, April 27.

Early dates of spring arrival are: South Carolina--Clemson College, March 20. North Carolina--Weaverville, March 3. Virginia--Lawrenceville, March 23. District of Columbia--Washington, March 30. New York--Corning, April 18. Massachusetts--Stockbridge, April 16. Vermont--St. Johnsbury, April 19. Maine--Lewiston, April 27. Quebec--Montreal, April 26. Nova Scotia--Wolfville, April 29. Mississippi--Deer Island, March 4. Louisiana--Schriever, March 8. Arkansas--March 12. Tennessee--Nashville, March 20. Illinois--Chicago, April 17. Michigan--Ann Arbor, April 6. Ohio--Toledo, April 7. Ontario--Guelph, April 22. Missouri--Marionville, April 3. Iowa--Grinnell, April 16. Wisconsin--Milwaukee, April 20. Minnesota--Lanesboro, April 23. Kansas--Independence, April 1. Omaha--April 21. North Dakota--April 28. Manitoba--Winnipeg, April 28. Alberta--Edmonton, May 6; McMurray, May 15. Mackenzie--Simpson, May 22.

Late dates of fall departure are: Alberta--Athabaska Landing, September 11. Manitoba--Aweme, September 22. North Dakota--Argusville, October 2. Minnesota--Minneapolis, October 10. Iowa--Davenport, October 1. Missouri--Columbia, October 24. Wisconsin--Madison, October 7. Illinois--Port Byron, October 15. Ontario--Hamilton, October 3. Michigan--Detroit, October 15. Ohio--Youngstown, October 15. Kentucky--Danville, October 14. Tennessee--Athens, October 17. Arkansas--Winslow, October 17. Louisiana--New Orleans, October 25. Mississippi--Gulfport, November 19. Quebec--Quebec, September 18. New Brunswick--St. John, September 19. Nova Scotia--Yarmouth, September 23. Maine--Portland, October 17. New Hampshire--Ossipee, October 18. Massachusetts--Cambridge, October 15. New York--New York, October 6. Pennsylvania--Atglen, October 29. District of Columbia--Washington, October 18. Virginia--Charlottesville, October 18. North Carolina--Raleigh, October 29. South Carolina--Charleston, November 15. Georgia--Savannah, October 29.

Early dates of fall arrival are: South Carolina--Charleston, July 19. Florida--Pensacola, July 12. Cuba--Artemisa, Pinar del Río, August 1. Dominican Republic--Ciudad Trujillo, September 27. Puerto Rico--Mayagüez, October 9. Louisiana--New Orleans, July 21. Mississippi--Bay St. Louis, July 4. Michoacán--Tancitaro, August 7. Guatemala--Huehuetenango, August 14. Honduras--Cantarranas, August 7. Costa Rica--San José, August 20. Panamá--Tapia, Canal Zone, August 24. Colombia--Bonda, Santa Marta region, August 21. Ecuador--Pastaza Valley, October 17. Venezuela--Estado Carabobo Las Trincheras, October 9.

_Banding._--A single banding recovery is of considerable interest: A black-and-white banded at Manchester, N. H., on August 31, 1944, was found on March 17, 1945, at Friendship P. O., Westmoreland, Jamaica.

_Casual records._--This warbler is casual in migration or winters in Bermuda, having been recorded in six different years from October to May.

At Tingwall, Shetland Islands, north of Scotland one was picked up on November 28, 1936. This is almost as far north as the northernmost record of occurrence in North America and later than it is normally found in the United States.

A specimen was collected near Pullman, Wash., on August 15, 1948, the first record for the State.

_Egg dates._--Massachusetts: 31 records, May 18 to June 14; 17 records, May 25 to June 3, indicating the height of the season.

New Jersey: 7 records, May 18 to June 8.

Tennessee: 3 records, May 1 to 17.

North Carolina: 6 records, April 20 to 28.

West Virginia: 7 records, May 6 to 29 (Harris).

PROTONOTARIA CITREA (Boddaert)

PROTHONOTARY WARBLER

PLATES 4-6

HABITS

I do not like the above name for the golden swamp warbler. The scientific name _Protonotaria_, and evidently the common name, were apparently both derived from the Latin _protonotarius_, meaning first notary or scribe. I sympathize with Bagg and Eliot (1937), who exclaimed:

What a name to saddle on the Golden Swamp-bird! Wrongly compounded in the first place, wrongly spelled, wrongly pronounced! We understand that Protonotarius is the title of papal officials whose robes are bright yellow, but why say "First Notary" in mixed Greek and Latin, instead of Primonotarius? Proto is Greek for first, as in prototype. Why and when did it come to be misspelled Protho? Both Wilson and Audubon wrote Protonotary Warbler, a name seemingly first given to the bird by Louisiana Creoles. Both etymology and sense call for stress on the third syllable, yet one most often hears the stress laid on the second. Here, certainly, is a bothersome name fit only to be eschewed!

The scientific name cannot be changed under the rules of nomenclature, but a change in the common name would seem desirable. However, the name does not make the bird or detract from its charm and beauty. It will still continue to thrill with delight the wanderer in its swampy haunts.

The center of abundance of the prothonotary warbler as a breeding bird in this country is in the valleys of the Mississippi River and its tributaries, notably the Ohio, the Wabash, and the Illinois Rivers. Its summer range extends eastward into Indiana and Ohio, northward into southern Ontario, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota, and westward into Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and eastern Texas--wherever it can find suitable breeding grounds.

It also breeds in the Atlantic Coast States from Virginia to Florida.

It is essentially a bird of the damp and swampy river bottoms and low-lying woods, which are flooded at times and in which woodland pools have been left by the receding water. Perhaps this warbler abounds more than anywhere else in the valley of the lower Wabash, where William Brewster (1878) found it to be--

one of the most abundant and characteristic species. Along the shores of the rivers and creeks generally, wherever the black willow (_Salix niger_) grew, a few pairs were sure to be found. Among the button-bushes (_Cephalanthus occidentalis_) that fringed the margin of the peculiar long narrow ponds scattered at frequent intervals over the heavily timbered bottoms of the Wabash and White Rivers, they also occurred more or less numerously. Potoka Creek, a winding, sluggish stream, thickly fringed with willows, was also a favorite resort; but the grand rendezvous of the species seemed to be about the shores of certain secluded ponds lying in what is known as the Little Cypress Swamp. Here they congregated in astonishing numbers, and early in May were breeding almost in colonies. In the region above indicated two things were found to be essential to their presence, namely, an abundance of willows and the immediate proximity of water. * * * So marked was this preference, that the song of the male heard from the woods indicated to us as surely the proximity of some river, pond, or flooded swamp, as did the croaking of frogs or the peep of the Hylas.

Dr. Chapman (1907) writes of this bird in its haunts:

The charm of its haunts and the beauty of its plumage combine to render the Prothonotary Warbler among the most attractive members of the family. I clearly recall my own first meeting with it in the Suwanee River region of Florida. Quietly paddling my canoe along one of the many enchanting, and, I was then quite willing to believe, enchanted streams which flowed through the forests into the main river, this glowing bit of bird-life gleamed like a torch in the night. No neck-straining examination with opera-glass pointed to the tree-tops, was required to determine his identity, as, flitting from bush to bush along the river's bank, his golden plumes were displayed as though for my special benefit.

Dr. Lawrence H. Walkinshaw (1938) says that the golden swamp warbler "nests rather abundantly along southwestern-Michigan rivers. * * * Winding streams, bordered densely with oak, maple, ash, and elm, shallow ponds with groups of protruding willows and flooded, heavily shaded bottom-lands are favorite nesting habitats for the Prothonotary Warbler (_Protonotaria citrea_). Such habitats occur along the banks of the Kalamazoo River and its tributary the Battle Creek River in Calhoun County, Michigan."

_Territory._--The males arrive on the breeding grounds a few days or a week before the females come and immediately try to establish their territories, select the nesting sites, and even build nests. Dr. Walkinshaw (1941) writes:

The Prothonotary Warbler is a very strongly territorial species. When a male takes possession of a certain area he continually drives off all opponents if he is able. At certain areas in Michigan I have watched these birds battle intermittently for two or three days, usually for the same bird house, one male finally taking possession. In addition I have observed them to drive off House Wrens (_Troglodytes aedon_), Black-capped Chickadees (_Penthestes atricapillus_) and Yellow Warblers (_Dendroica aestiva_). * * * The male Prothonotary Warbler selects the territory, selecting the nesting site before he becomes mated for the first nest, but thereafter both birds inspect the new nest sites.

On observations made near Knoxville, Tenn., Henry Meyer and Ruth Reed Nevius (1943) found that--

three males established territories. Male I arrived April 14. By the next day he was singing on an area 550 feet long and for the most part not more than 200 feet wide. It included three kinds of habitats: (a) a grassy terrace on which several nesting boxes were located, (b) river banks densely covered with small trees and bushes, and (c) a small open orchard which constituted the connecting link between the terrace and the river bank. Male II arrived on April 18 and occupied a narrow territory along a brook confined by wooded slopes and which contained two lotus ponds. The area was about 400 feet long and 100 feet wide. A nesting box was on a stake above one of the ponds. Male III appeared May 5 in the terraced area being claimed by Male I. During the day, the 2 males sang energetically and flew often only a few inches apart. Male I maintained his territory and Male III disappeared.

There were a number of nesting boxes on the area that the males investigated, carrying nesting material into some of them while they were waiting for the females to arrive. The mate of the first male came on April 20, and--

on this day this pair communicated by their full call-note. Twice the male was seen pursuing the female rapidly in a small semi-circle and pausing, called a soft, full note which was later heard only when the two sexes were together.

The mate of Male II came April 22, four days after the latter's arrival.